Deutsche Bank to Focus on Russia’s Rich After Fund Merger

Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) will focus on
wealthy clients in Russia following the merger of its local
asset manager and private-banking business, according to the
company’s Russian head.

“We will change the focus in the reorganization toward
more people who cover wealthy individuals,” Pavel Teplukhin,
48, said in an interview in Moscow today. “Mutual funds will be
organized through third-party distribution” with Citigroup Inc.
and “other banks in Moscow because we don’t have any retail
network here,” he said.

Germany’s biggest bank agreed to buy the 60 percent in
Deutsche UFG Capital Management it didn’t already own a year
ago. UFG Capital, which managed about 300 million euros ($389.8
million) in November 2011 mostly for private and institutional
clients, will be merged with Deutsche Bank Private Wealth
Management as part of a global push to cut its costs in asset
management and boost earnings.

Deutsche Bank has cut an unspecified number of traders in
Russia because of a drop in trading volumes, Teplukhin said.

“That’s the only part of Deutsche Bank Russia where we had
staff changes,” Teplukhin said.

Total headcount has increased to 1,120 in Russia from 1,048
a year earlier, a Deutsche Bank spokesman in Moscow said.
Profit in Russia surged to 45 million euros for the first nine
months of this year from 5 million in the year-earlier period,
according to a company presentation today.

Equity Deals

Deutsche Bank remains committed to Russia and won’t be
relocating bankers to London, where the largest Russian equity
deals by OAO Sberbank and OAO Megafon took place this year,
Teplukhin said. The bank slid to 14th in arranging equity deals
this year from second a year ago, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg. It remained second for advising on mergers and
acquisitions, behind Bank of America Corp., the data show.

“At the moment it happens most investors in Russian
securities are outside of Russia, but we are not shifting people
to London,” Teplukhin said. “We have a lot of important
business and important links with people here.”

Credit Suisse Group AG, the second-largest Swiss lender, is
moving its Russian capital-markets and advisory businesses from
Moscow to London to cut costs, two people with knowledge of the
matter said last week.

Teplukhin, named head of Russian operations in September,
said he stepped down from the board of VTB Group, the country’s
second-biggest lender, during the summer. He said he “will
probably step down” as chairman of the board of Forex Club, an
online brokerage, in early 2013.

Teplukhin, an architect of Russia’s federal law on mutual
funds, was a managing director at Troika Dialog and chairman of
its asset-management unit until his departure more than two
years ago. In 2008, he said 30 percent of the people on Forbes
magazine’s Russian rich list were his clients.